Monday, October 11, 2010

Before I started working at Honeyville Farms I thought oats just came in the rolled form that I used to make cookies and eat in my morning hot cereal. I thought they grew in flat pieces--boy was I wrong! Oats come in a variety of forms: groats, rolled, chopped, flour, bran (just like wheat)

Each form of oats can be used in a variety of ways. My mother-in-law uses Oat Groats to replace rice as a side dish for my father-in-law. You can make a yummy Oat Groat and Apricot bread with Oat Groats as well. My husband prefers Regular Oats over Quick Oats for hot cereal but I am just the opposite. It's a texture thing to me. In a pinch, I've used Quick Oats as a replacement to cracker crumbs in a meatball recipe. One of my co-workers from the E-Commerce department had this to say about Steel-Cut Oats:

"I'm always looking for new and different ways to get a healthy breakfast that I can prepare and eat quickly. I think I have a winner with my latest breakfast creation. I take a packet or two of instant oatmeal (wait, it gets much better), and add it to my coffee cup. I then add three tablespoons of Steel Cut Oats and two tablespoons of Freeze Dried Blueberries. I add water and microwave for a minute. The result is a chewy variation on oatmeal that has the great flavor of blueberries and sticks with me for hours. I get the benefits of a whole grain in the Steel Cut Oats along with all of the anti-oxidants in the Freeze Dried Blueberries. It tastes great and starts my day off right."

I love that Oats are so healthy for you AND they taste good. How often does that happen? What are your favorite uses for Oats?

I love to cook oat groats with an equal amount of brown rice in my electric pressure cooker. Just put equal amounts of oat groats (1/2 c.) with same amount of brown rice in pressure cooker. Add 1 cup water and pressure for 20 minutes. Perfect side dish. I use it with stir fry or grilled chicken or fish. YUMMY. I have also used it as a cereal with a few slices of fruit and milk. Love the chewiness of it.